How Collaboration And A Little Magic Made Blood Orange's 'Negro Swan'

The musician and producer Dev Hynes, best-known for his indie electro R&B project, Blood Orange, released Negro Swan on Aug. 24, his fourth LP under that moniker. Not unlike his music career, the album brings together an unexpected group of collaborators which together showcase Hynes' creative vision and unique voice in an organic way.

The third single from the album, "Saint" highlights Hynes' masterful collaboration skills. The song features the voices of four other artists, including the indie-rock band Porches, all of which were recorded in different studios at different times. The music video, like many of his, including for "Jewelry," was directed by the multi-talented (yet impossible to label) artist himself.

Thanks to circumstances even Hynes himself may never know, with perhaps an almost magic text message, Hynes was able to get a dream collaboration on "Hope." The track fits its title, with the one and only Puff Daddy offering hopeful spoken-word messages throughout the song.

"What is it going to take for me not to be afraid to be loved the way, like, I really wanna be loved?…You give me that hope that maybe one day I’ll get over my fears and I’ll receive,” Puff says on the track.

In an interview with Pitchfork, Hynes shares how the collab came together rather serendipitously. "While working on that song, I started doing fake Puff vocals, because I thought it sounded like that to me. And then I was like, 'It’d be kind of cool if it actually was Puff.' So I sent him a text, like, 'I did this track, do you want to do this vocal part?' And he replied, 'Send it.' He sent back his vocals, like, 20 hours later," he shared, almost in awe himself of how it came together.

The second single from the album, "Jewelry," feels like an organic stream of consciousness with distinct parts, a distillation of the album's themes and perhaps the artist's life experiences as a whole. Hynes' said that his label had been on him to get album art, but he had a gut feeling that the right image to represent the album would come from the shoot, and indeed it did. He wanted to work with Kai the Black Angel in the video, and a stunning image of him from the video shoot, wearing angel wings through the streets of New York, became the Negro Swancover art.

Clearly the artist knows when to trust his intuition and let the art flow naturally. If more evidence of this was needed, one could point to him featuring writer/director/activist Janet Mock as the narrator on the album, offering her insights on the albums themes across many of the tracks. Her voice and perspective offers a deeper cohesion to album, yet Hynes shares that her words were taken from a conversation they had one day in his studio when their paths crossed in New York; he shared his Negro Swan inspiration notebook with her and recorded her thoughts on it.

While Negro Swan has recently created a lot of buzz around Hynes, and for good reason, he is no stranger to the music industry, having spent a lot of time behind-the-scenes writing and producing for a wide range of artists across genres, including GRAMMY winners Kylie Minogue, Solange, Basement Jaxx, andChemical Brothers on "All Rights Reserved" from their GRAMMY-winning We Are The Night. There must be more than a little magic and a whole lot of creative vision behind what he makes feel almost effortlessly natural.

Governors Ball 2019: The Strokes, Tyler, The Creator And Florence & The Machine To Headline

The NYC music festival returns on May 31–June 2 with plenty of music to rock the island; the impressive lineup also includes Nas, Lil Wayne, Kaytranada, Noname, Charli XCX, Gesaffelstein and BROCKHAMPTON

Discounted "Announce Day" pricing for festival tickets is available today until 11:59 EST. More info on tickets, as well as the complete lineup and event details can be found on the Governors Ball site.

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The organizers for what they are calling a "'pop-up' micro-festival" include former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson, who is offering the site of future home to Tyson Ranch Resort.

Tyson recently broke ground on the property last month, which a press release for the festival says will be a "420-acre entertainment complex, luxury glamping resort and cannabis research and design facility." The Blast reports that Tyson has been a longtime believer in the healing benefits of cannabis and "says taking care of men and women who have served in the armed forces is a top priority" on the ranch.

Organizers also say that the event will be the first music festival to celebrate California's new 2019 marijuana legislation.

"Kind Music Festival is a revolution—leading the way for a new generation of health and wellness focused cannabis consumers, 'The Kind Generation,'" says a KIND festival producer. "The word 'kind' is defined as 'a group of people or things having similar characteristics' as well as 'of a good or benevolent nature or disposition…Kind Music Festival challenges conventional thinking while being mainstream."

Jul 7, 2018 – 2:46 pm

Miguel On 'War & Leisure' & Essence Fest

A portion of ticket sales will benefit Standing United, a non-profit organization aimed at helping individuals recover from drug addiction and homelessness to "reintegrate into society and become upstanding citizens in their communities." Tyson himself, along with other Kind Festival employees, the press release reports, have struggled with addiction.

Two Woodstock 50th Anniversary Events Planned For Aug. 2019

As the golden birthday of the historic music festival approaches, available rooms in Sullivan County for Aug. 15–18 are already in limited supply, even before the lineups or major details for either event have been announced

Judging by the rapid rate hotels and Airbnbs are been being booked in Sullivan County, the site of the iconic ’69 Woodstock Music And Arts Fair, music fans from around the world are ready and excited to celebrate the historic fest's 50th birthday.

Two music festivals will take place on the anniversary weekend, one unofficial at the Bethel Woods Center For The Arts, and an official 50th celebration at a to-be-announced venue, hosted by organizers of the original event.

If you want to take part in the magic of the Woodstock 50th anniversary events and stay in Sullivan County during the long weekend of Aug. 15–18, you should think about booking a room soon. The Times-Herald Record Of Middletown reports that hotels, Airbnbs and everything in between have been booking up quickly, even before official news of an anniversary event had been revealed last month.

The newspaper also shared that many places to stay near the Bethel Woods Center—the venue which now lives at the site of the original event—are already completely booked with already-lengthy waiting lists. One hotel, which is still under construction and set to open this summer, is already fully booked with a waitlist, and shared that their first guest inquiry came in two years ago.

"There's a lot of interest on the domestic front and the international front, whether you were there in 1969, or just want to be here today," said Sullivan County Visitors Association CEO Roberta Byron Lockwood.

The organizers of the Bethel Woods Festival describe their three-day event as a "pan-generational music, culture, and community event" with "live performances from prominent and emerging artists spanning multiple genres and decades, and TED-style talks from leading futurists and retro-tech experts." Attendees will get to visit the venue's year-round Woodstock-centric museum which will feature special new 2019 exhibit called We Are Golden: Reflections On The 50th Anniversary Of The Woodstock Festival And Aspirations For An Aquarian Future.

"50 years ago, people gathered peacefully on our site inspired to change the world through music," said Darlene Fedun, Bethel Woods Center CEO. "As the stewards of this historic site, we remain committed to preserving this rich history and spirit, and to educating and inspiring new generations to contribute positively to the world through music, culture, and community."

Lang, who was one of the main promoters for Woodstock '69 and has been hinting at an official 50th anniversary event for some time, confirmed minimal details with the Poughkeepsie Journal, who on Dec. 19 wrote that Lang had "definite plans" for an anniversary concert not held at the original location.

On Dec. 30, Woodstock Ventures, which runs the official Woodstock website and works with Lang, shared a statement from the co-founder:

"While the original site in Bethel remains close to our hearts, it no longer has the capacity to hold a real Woodstock Festival. I'm delighted that Bethel Woods is doing events in the coming year to celebrate what we brought to life in 1969," wrote Lang.

However you choose to celebrate Woodstock's 50th anniversary, Sullivan County is ready to welcome you this summer with peace and love vibes, complete with 36 fiberglass dove statues painted by local artists in '60s-inspired colors.

Just make sure to book a place to stay sooner rather than later, unless you want to relive the memories of many would-have-been-Woodstock-goers stuck on Route 17B, aka Woodstock Way.

One Take: Mozzy On His Dream Collab, First Music Video He Ever Watched & More

West Coast rapper Mozzy has been perfecting his craft over the years and released his latest LP, Gangland Landlord, on Oct. 5. The album has been receiving buzz, especially for "Thugz Mansion," a tribute to his biggest influence, Tupac Shakur. He stopped by our headquarters to play a round of One Take, GRAMMY.com's rapid-fire game that challenges your favorite artists to see how many questions about life, music and everything in between they can answer in 60 seconds.

Jan 1, 2019 – 9:53 am

One Take With Mozzy

In the episode Mozzy tells us what his favorite Tupac song is, the first album he ever bought and his favorite part about his hometown of Sacramento. He also reveals his favorite movie, the city he'd like to perform in next and who his dream collaborator is.

Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.